Human Resources committee  It is safe to say that the rate of inspections is increasing, as that capacity—

Human Resources committee  The exemption for employers seeking seasonal workers was implemented February 19, and all the applications since that date have been processed with this exemption in place for, as you said, 180-day seasons. That was a modification of a provision in place the previous year, which was 120-day permits.

Human Resources committee  Your question is twofold. First, I would say that when we do a labour market impact assessment, we look at a specific position with a specific employer. We consider whether there is a labour shortage in this sector. We look specifically at that position. That is why we look at a specific offer of employment from a specific employer.

Human Resources committee  With respect to the fee, there is a fee for an individual requesting a caregiver. That's a fee for the employer to give the labour market impact assessment. If the worker doesn't show up or the worker changes, that's still a valid LMIA for the employer in question.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the temporary foreign worker program and its place in the Canadian labour market. I have a slide deck that I'm not going to present but rather circulate to members of the committee for their information to assist with the review of the program.

Human Resources committee  We're continuing to monitor closely the situation in all parts of the country, including these and other regions. There's a labour force survey coming out later this week that will contribute to that analysis, but there's no policy decision taken as yet on the next steps.

Human Resources committee  I can start, and my colleague Benoît may want to jump in. The vast majority of the Auditor General's report focused on the CPP disability side of the program, so it's outside my area of responsibility. I would just note that a key element of the change in the appeals model was the introduction on the EI side of a reconsideration phase, an administrative reconsideration of claims before the client needs to go to a formal appeal.

Human Resources committee  There are different types of impacts to take into account. There is some evidence—I think it was alluded to in the presentation by Statistics Canada—about the number of disqualifications. Those were quite modest in number, but there would be impacts beyond that in terms of the rules that are set for the obligations of claimants.

Human Resources committee  I can comment factually that the plan is to reverse these provisions and would take the obligations to what existed prior to 2012. There are long-standing obligations for all EI recipients to look for and accept available work, and there is jurisprudence that has come into play to define exactly what that looks like in terms of its interpretation.

Human Resources committee  You're right again. As was alluded to in the Statistics Canada presentation, job search strategies are changing. We're seeing dramatic take-up on our national job bank. For example, we have 650,000 job seekers currently registered to receive job alerts, so we're sending out over one million job alerts a week to people looking for employment, with some fairly positive indications on the success of that.

Human Resources committee  The criteria that were set for the provision of these extra weeks involved several elements. We took a base period before the commodities downturn, since the unemployment was clearly linked to the commodities downturn. We looked at a base period of three months prior to the commodity price drop.

Human Resources committee  The biggest connection between employment insurance and skills training would be the labour market development agreements. Last year $2 billion, and that amount is being increased to roughly $2.1 billion, was transferred to provinces to provide active training supports for EI-eligible clients.

Human Resources committee  There has been some costing done over the years when these proposals have been made—

Human Resources committee  I hesitate to put an exact number on the table, because it's important to describe exactly what the changes are. There are many variations. Whether the changes relate to special benefits or regular benefits—

Human Resources committee  For example, there's a different entry requirement for special benefits, which is 600 hours across the country right now. There are just important definitional questions as to whether the question is about changing all benefits or just regular EI benefits.